Week 9- Apr 10, 12

Atoms and Matter- and Oobleck!!!

This week students will learn about the smallest units of an element in the universe- atoms! I know, this is a group of students ranging from prereaders to advanced readers so making high school level chemistry understandable and enjoyable is a pretty grand undertaking. But, I plan on making this week very interactive. We will be breaking down the advanced ideas of protons, neutrons, electrons, periodic tables and chemical reactions into graspable concepts that all the students will enjoy.
We will be making a "semi-liquid" called oobleck (click on the word to see the definition and how to make it). This substance is best known for it's short stint on The Big bang Theory (see video here) and also on the Ellen Show with guest scientist Steve Spangler (see video here).

Oops- I was ahead of myself last week :) Next week is our last week together. Though some days we struggled I have been very fortunate with the class this semester. Hopefully, your student has enjoyed their experiences as much as I have. Thank you for your support :)

Week 8- Apr 2, 4

Disaster Week- Tornadoes

Last week went so well that I decided to move forward with another disaster week. As the odds would have it, this week has actually seen tornadoes in Texas which we will be discussing. Students will have the chance to see the real footage coming out every day as well as learn about scientists who are working to explore and define tornado science. We will make our own tornadoes on Thursday.
Two More Weeks!!

Tornado in a Jar (Tuesday example):
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/wwatch/tornadoes/experiments.htm

Week 7- Mar. 27, 29

Disaster Week- Earthquakes!

Welcome back! Hopefully everyone had a fun Spring Break. We will be focusing the next few weeks on natural disasters. This week it's all about Earthquakes- how they happen, where and when, as well as safety precautions. 

The students had some questions about real world earthquake application, specifically how our buildings are made safe for earthquakes. So I thought that our experiments should focus on how we make safe structures. If time permits we will do three experiments. 

Lab 1: Build a marshmallow structure. See how well it stands up against an earthquake. Each person makes their own structure and compares results with their group.

Lab 2: Build a sugar cube structure See how well it stands up against an earthquake. Each group makes their structure as a team.

Lab 3: Build another sugar cube structure but use frosting as a bonding agent. See how well it stands up against an earthquake. Each group makes their structure as a team.

Week 6- Mar. 13, 15

The Body- Focus on Senses

 

This week we will do an overview of the basic body system and focus on the senses. I will show an empty body outline we will add to as we watch a short audio book on: heart, brain, skeleton, veins and arteries, stomach, intestines, lungs, muscles, and skin. Audio book can be seen here: http://www.apples4theteacher.com/elibrary/bodybook.html

Week 5- Mar 6, 8

Food Chains

We will focus on the movement of energy, beginning with the sun and moving through the plants and animals in a given environment. 
We will do an experiment where students will act as prey and predator to see how survival happens. And if there is time we will also do an experiment involving adaptation.

Link to this week's vocabulary practice:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B89LN3617zKWWUFrN3NyQlZRTFd3dklVQzEtbGFZdw

A lot of friends wanted to know how to get to the games we played so here are links to them:

Week 4- Feb 28, Mar 1

Earth and Rocks

We will be discussing the layers of the Earth this week. Students will also learn how rocks are formed.

Our experiment will be modeling this week. In science we must learn how to accurately portray what we are observing so others might be able to test our theories, part of that process is building models.

Link to vocabulary practice:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B89LN3617zKWUEd5dHdXZTJTd3VBY3Brbk04NldjQQ

Videos Watched:

Week 3- Feb 21, 23

Water and Its Forms

We will be discussing water this week- the water cycle as well as forms of matter and how we can both identify and change water's form. Water is unique to Earth (as of today but science is making new discoveries every day) and is a unique element in and of itself.
*In fact- a new water planet was just discovered by scientists that is remarkably similar to Earth but millions of miles away. So that last sentence should read "Water is unique to Earth in this solar system" though that can also change very soon.
Water is special because it can be three forms and still be considered the same basic element.

Science vocabulary discussed:

evaporation

condensation

matter

water

liquid

solid

ice

water vapor

Presentaton:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14UUhIJzAA8zbPz6mdCwsHcitcgKwzoAa2cm2-I9nLoM/edit